Monday, August 9, 2010

Pop-Tarts Pop Up in Manhattan

When I was expecting my daughter Holley about 20 years ago, I woke up one morning with the most intense craving I had ever experienced. I had to have a Pop-Tart, and I had to have it NOW.

Never mind that I hadn’t eaten one in years. Within minutes, I was standing inside the nearest grocery store examining the different flavors and varieties of the breakfast pastry to see which one attracted my eye, and my palate.

I tussled with the decision. Did I want frosted blueberry, plain apple or my childhood favorite brown sugar cinnamon? Or did I want one that sounded more like dessert, such as a chocolate and marshmallow combo?

I finally gave up trying to choose and threw literally every variety into the shopping cart. To this day I can recall the look on the cashier’s face as she rang up box after box after box of Pop-Tarts.

So you can imagine why the opening of the first-ever store devoted to Pop-Tarts resonated with me. According to the New York Times, Kellogg is opening a 3,200-sq.-ft. pop-up store on Tuesday, called Pop-Tarts World. The store is in Times Square, on 42nd St. between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, and is slated to stay open until January.

The café will serve about 30 snacks and desserts, including such menu items as Fluffer Butter (sort of a Pop-Tart and marshmallow sandwich) and, um, sushi, which is three kinds of Pop-Tarts chopped up and wrapped in a fruit roll.

Typical to Times Square, where everything is bigger than life, the store will put on a light show each hour that “frosts” shoppers in red and white light, then “sprinkles” them with light pulses. A custom-made vending machine will dispense 23 flavors of the treat. And customers have the option of building their own Pop-Tarts. The 50-foot storefront will be wrapped in Pop Tarts branding and Kellogg will take over the six-story billboard above the store.